{"id":1003140,"date":"2026-08-15T21:26:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T21:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1003140\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T21:26:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T21:26:21","slug":"robert-plant-was-in-a-very-bad-mood-when-he-wrote-led-zeppelins-biggest-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1003140\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Plant Was in a \u201cVery Bad Mood\u201d When He Wrote Led Zeppelin\u2019s Biggest Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1971, Led Zeppelin released \u201cStairway To Heaven<\/a>\u201d. The song, from their fourth studio album, Led Zeppelin IV,\u00a0 was written by Robert Plant <\/a>and Jimmy Page.<\/p>\n

To this day, \u201cStairway To Heaven\u201d remains one of Led Zeppelin\u2019s most memorable songs. A Top 20 single, despite \u201cStairway To Heaven\u201d being just over eight minutes in length, there are few songs that are as iconic in rock music history as this song. So it\u2019s surprising that Plant later reveals he had no idea he was writing one of the most memorable songs of all time when he wrote the lyrics to \u201cStairway To Heaven\u201d.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n

Plant and Page were sitting by a fire when \u201cStairway To Heaven\u201d began.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was holding a pencil and paper, and for some reason I was in a very bad mood,\u201d Plant remembers<\/a>. \u201cThen all of a sudden my hand was writing out the words, \u2018There\u2019s a lady who\u2019s sure all that glitters is gold\/And she\u2019s buying a stairway to heaven\u2026\u2019 I just sat there and looked at the words and then I almost leapt out of my seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Jimmy Page Says About \u201cStairway To Heaven\u201d by Led Zeppelin<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

Plant may have begun the lyrics for \u201cStairway To Heaven\u201d. But it\u2019s Page who suggested a really long song, long before Led Zeppelin IV was even completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to tell you about it in case it doesn\u2019t come off,\u201d\u00a0Page said<\/a> at the time. \u201cIt\u2019s an idea for a really long track on the next album. \u2026 We want to try something new with the organ and acoustic guitar building up and building to the electric thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Page reportedly wanted to do a 15-minute song but agreed to make \u201cStairway To Heaven\u201d a little more than eight minutes.<\/p>\n

When Page played \u201cStairway To Heaven\u201d for the members of Led Zeppelin, they were not immediately taken with the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just one of those things where it goes verse-chorus-verse,\u201d Page admits<\/a>. \u201cIt was tricky because it had sections, but they didn\u2019t repeat exactly the same each time.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cStairway To Heaven\u201d is also a song that doesn\u2019t stop, giving band members little reprieve for eight minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I was very keen to establish was that the whole thing would keep moving in tempo and intensity,\u201d Page recounts. \u201cThe tempo changes from the beginning to the end \u2013 it\u2019s quite radically different \u2013 but that was the intention. You would find that, having been a studio musician, the one thing any trained musicians will tell you you don\u2019t do is speed up or slow down. This, as far as I could see, was in league with the whole concept of classical writing where everything is moving, moving, moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo by Robert Knight Archive\/Redferns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1971, Led Zeppelin released \u201cStairway To Heaven\u201d. The song, from their fourth studio album, Led Zeppelin IV,\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1003141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[976,171,35304,975,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1003140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-classic-rock","tag-entertainment","tag-led-zeppelin","tag-music","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117101645738870101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}